3/22 Easter Fun, Still Waiting

Still no Travel Approval. :(

We can no longer expect to travel on April 3rd, but at least it does not conflict with the Geography Bee for Matthew and Mary Alice will not miss her school play.

We will most likely hear something about our Travel Approval next week and then we will know more. There is still a possibility for Travel on 4/11.

Our friend, Ken, picked up Jasmine Ying on Monday and they had several moments of overwhelming hysteria, before she snapped into an accepting and excited attitude and settled into her new adventure. He did travel to Chaoyang SWI but did not see Ling. She was most likely napping, as the timing was after lunch. We were disappointed, but understood that the orphanage cannot disrupt the children's lives and patterns. He gave the nannies the album for her and they promised to show her.

We are keeping ourselves busy with the Bunny Hutch, below.

Matthew made this cool, very big paper structure.

3/16 An Amazing Discovery Before Breakfast!

Honestly, I can't believe it. I recently received some updated photos from the orphanage through www.BlessedKids.com (I paid them to request and send some photos) and was astonished to realize that Ling has changed so much that I barely recognized her. She is on the far right in the red jacket, in the photo below. These pictures were taken on December 13, 2007. I actually saw these photos a month ago on the VisitingOrphans Blog, and had NO IDEA this was Ling.

I am going crazy with waiting to be with her!

3/15 Sweet Things for Sweet Ling

This is a picture of Ling's rocking chair, which I just finished recovering to match the room.




This is Ling's Asian Bitty Baby in her new back carrier.
It has a little section where Ling can carry her baby's things and Ling's snacks when we are in China.
I love the bear in the front!

Megan Ling's Chaoyang Friends, soon coming home!

All of these children are waiting for their "forever families" to come and get them. Jasmine's family is picking her up this Monday!!

Hopefully, we will not be far behind.


Jasmine Frances Ying sitting next to Megan Ling

Sofia Bao

Min Ping

3/12 Chaoyang means "Morning Sun"

Megan Ling lives in the Chaoyang Social Welfare Institute. My friends, Stacey and John, who are also adopting Sofia Bao, from Chaoyang, shared the following information from Wikipedia.

The name "Chaoyang" comes from a poem in one of the oldest collections of Chinese poetry. The poem found in the famous Shijing goes,

"A wutong tree grew on a mountain. A fenghuang bird perched at the top and sang towards the morning sun."

In the eastern part of Chaoyang, there is a mountain that has been called Fenghuang Mountain since old times. In 1778, this mountain was connected with the poem from the Shijing and Chaoyang was given its current name.

The tree in the poem is a Chinese Parasol tree. John says they're very large trees with big leaves...12 inches across! The bird is mythical, like a Phoenix.

3/12 Megan Ling's Photo Album

These are sample pictures of the photo album that we sent to Ling with the Chinese-English captions. Mary Alice decorated the cover with these beautiful lady bugs. I included a caption at the end that said (in Chinese) made by your older sister (jie jie-pronouced gee-gee).

3/10 Matthew Qualifies for the NYS Geography Bee

After winning the Mill Middle School Geo Bee in November 2007, Matthew (pictured far left) tested in January for the NYS level Bee. He just got the letter saying that he made the cutoff. There are only 100 students in NYS eligible to participate. The competition is in Albany, on April 4th. It may conflict with our trip to China, we will just have to wait and see!!!

3/8 Passing the time!

This is what is happening at our house this weekend!

3/3 We have our Letter Seeking Confirmation!

Dear Megan Ling,

Today we got a call from our agency telling us that we received our Official Referral to adopt you. Great Wall is going to send us papers to sign tomorrow and as soon as we send them back to Great Wall, the Chinese government is going to set up our appointment at the Chinese Consulate so we can get your Visa to bring you home. As soon as they know the date of our appointment they will give us Travel Approval (TA) and then we can arrange our tickets to come to you!

We are so excited to be another step closer to you!

Today, Mary Alice and I worked very hard on a photo album for you with pictures of our family, our home, your room, and many pictures of our cats! (Mary Alice thought that was very important!) Our friends, the Elwoods will give it to your Nannies when they come to China to pick up your friend Ying, next week. Your nannies will read it to you and talk to you about the photos. They will be able to read the chinese captions that we included!

Matthew and Daddy say Hello (Ni Hao) and Kisses (Wen Yi Wen).

Love, Mama

3/3 Megan Ling, Your room is ready!

Dear Megan Ling,

We have been all very busy getting your room ready. We have cleaned out your closets, ordered and installed brand new shelves and rods (www.easyclosets.com--loved them) and had your border and walls painted by a wonderful local artist, Diana (if readers are interested, contact me privately and I can connect you to her). Daddy worked hard finishing the long list of tasks I had for him to do (and he never complained!!!)

Mary Alice helped me arrange the furniture and organize your dollhouse. We had a great time doing it all. We took pictures to make a photo album for you and some friends are going to take it to China when they adopt your friend, Ying from Chaoyang, this month.

We were hoping to come and get you in April, but that looks unlikely at this point. Probably May. It's hard to wait.

Here are pictures of your bedroom.

Jasmine likes your room!

This is where you will keep your toys.

This is where you will keep your clothes.
Kind of empty right now, but your Grandma's seem to be taking good care of filling it!! :)

Diana painted Matthew, Mary Alice and you, so you can easily see it from your bed!
We absolutely love this part of your room!

This says Min Bao Ling, which is your Chinese name.

And Aunt Sue made this for you! It's your English name.
What a lucky girl to have two names!
Thanks, Aunt Sue!!!

Now all we need is you, Ling! Do you have any idea how much we love you???

Women Ai Ni (We Love You)

XOXOX

Mama